Outline:
Email purporting to be from Apple Support claims that your iTunes ID has been blocked due to “unusual activity” and you must click a link to verify the ID before you can use it again.
Analysis:
The email is not from Apple and the claim that your account has been blocked is untrue. In fact, the email is yet another phishing scam designed to steal your Apple ID, your credit card numbers, and other personal information.
If you click the link, you will be taken to a fraudulent website that closely mirrors the appearance of the genuine Apple website. Once on the fake site, you will be first asked to log in with your Apple account credentials and then taken to a bogus verification form that asks for more personal and financial information. All of the information you supply on the fake site can be collected by criminals and used to hijack your Apple account and commit credit card fraud and identity theft.
The Apple website includes more information about such phishing scams and how to report them.
Subject: Your iTunes id has been blocked
Dear Valued Customer ,
We recently detected unusual Αctivity on your ΑppleΙD.
To verify this ΙD belοngs to you, checκ the linκ below,
sign in and then fοllow the instructiοns.
Verify_now >
Why you received this email.
Αpple requests verificatiοn whenever an actiοn is selected in the ΙD. Your ΙD cannοt be used until you νerify it.
Αpple_Suppοrt™
Last updated: January 27, 2017
First published: January 27, 2017
By Brett M. Christensen
About Hoax-Slayer
References
Apple ID ‘Security Notice’ Phishing Scam
Phishing & Other Suspicious Emails
Since you’ve read this far…
…can I ask you for a big favour?To enhance your privacy and security and offer you a better user experience, Hoax-Slayer is now ad-free. To keep the site online, I now rely on voluntary contributions from site visitors along with commissions from a few trusted products and services that I promote via reviews on the site.
If you found the above report useful, please consider supporting Hoax-Slayer by making a donation. Any amount you can give will be greatly appreciated.
You can donate using your credit card via the form below. Donations are collected securely via the online payment service Stripe. Stripe uses state of the art security to keep your data safe.
Thank-you.
Brett Christensen